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Ministers cowed by investors’ protests

So did you queue to take your money out of your local Northern Rock branch, or did you stay at home, happily accepting assurances that your money was safe?

If you stayed at home, you saved shoe leather - if you queued, congratulations, although I had to smile at the Leeds depositors who turned up with folding chairs and flasks of tea. A very Yorkshire idea of panic.

For the first time since the 1990 poll tax riots, the government has bowed to a street demo. I am all for bringing it to heel.

Something similar happened last week in America. No-one took to the streets, but Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's half a percentage point interest-rate cut was akin to throwing bones to a baying pack of wolves.

The trouble with mob rule is that it forces politicians to make policy on the hoof, leading to mistakes and mistrust. The